homebrewing beer and root beer

Until a couple of years ago I always figured I could buy excellent beers in the grocery store so why should I make my own? A friend convinced me to try it once and I was hooked. Because it's fun. You can actually make better tasting beer than in stores because you can use very high quality ingredients and it is exactly suited for your tastes!

I've come to love tasting a variety of different beers, I find now I will often buy beers I've never tried before just for the experience! The rest of the time I can drink (and serve) my own brew!

With the craft brewing interesting beers are becoming more available to many of us. In my home town of Portland, OR, there are several brewfests that happen at different times of years to showcase many local, international, and spring and winter) beers. Brewfests make for great tasting, you can try small quantities of a large variety of beers to find what you like best!

It really is easy to make your own beer. There are many sites describing the basic starting techniques, so I won't go through all of that again here. Instead I will refer you to How To Brew or Papazian's bible of homebrewing.

The 4 primary ingredients for most beers are water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. Some breweries also use sugar, other cereals, or herbs and spices.

To highly oversimplify the process of brewing beer first the grains are steeped (just like tea), then the liquid is boiled with the hops (just like a stew), then add the yeast after it cools. It's really an extension of cooking except it is the liquid that is the focus of the process. The yeast is the magic in beermaking, it is a living organism that chews up sugar and creates alcohol.

Homebrewers can start from kits or basic ingredients to make beer. Using a kit can save some time and is an easier way to get started, starting from basic ingredients can give you more control over the resulting beer and is an interesting process, but takes more time and equipment generally. Either way excellent beer can be made!